The roar of magic still hummed in the air like the aftermath of a thunderclap, the forest warped by raw heat and violent wind. Trees groaned, split down their trunks, and the air sizzled with fading sparks as scorched leaves rained from blackened branches.
And at the center of it all, Wade crumpled to the ground, unmoving.
"Wade!" Lira's voice tore from her throat before she knew she'd screamed it. Her legs moved on their own, stumbling over cracked roots and smoking grass. She fell to her knees beside him, hands trembling as she grabbed his shoulders and pulled him toward her.
His face was pale—too pale. His breathing shallow. Sweat slicked his brow and his chest heaved like he'd just run a hundred miles. His eyes fluttered, lips slightly parted as if he were whispering in his sleep.
"Wade, wake up," she begged, brushing soot and ash from his face. "Please, please wake up... what did you do?"
And then she saw it.
Glowing letters, very faint and hovering above his chest like embers hanging in air.
[Class Assigned: HERO]
[Affinity: FIRE] [Affinity: WIND]
[Core Integration In Progress…]
Lira blinked, struggling to read it, her mouth slightly ajar. A system? But Wade… Wade had never even shown signs of magic. And now this?
Her mind reeled, trying to stitch together what had just happened. That explosion of power—it hadn't come from her or Riven. She knew her brother's flames, she felt her own wind. This… this had been something else.
Wade groaned softly, his hand twitching.
"Wade?" she whispered, leaning closer.
But his eyes didn't open. He slipped deeper into unconsciousness, the glow from the system display slowly fading as if folding into his body.
Lira's eyes widened, heart hammering.
Something had changed.
Wade had changed.
And something told her—nothing was ever going to be the same again.
The forest was still screaming.
Though the monster's howl had stopped, though its massive form, now partially disintegrated no longer moved or breathed, the trees continued to moan—bent, broken, scorched. Smoke licked upward in silent tendrils, curling toward the fragmented sky. Ash floated down like black snow. And the silence that followed wasn't peace.
It was the pause between heartbeats, the stunned breath after an impossible moment.
Lira sat frozen.
The clearing was a ruin.
The monster had been blasted to pieces—chunks of black hide, blood, and bone smeared across bark and soil. The once-green earth had been seared black. Craters marked where roots had been torn out. Birds no longer sang. There was no sound beyond the crackle of cooling flame and the faint breeze tugging at her cloak.
And Riven—
She turned fast.
"Riven!"
He was lying against a tree, limbs limp. Blood streaked the side of his face. She scrambled toward him, nearly dropping Wade as she gently laid her brother's body to the side, whispered apologies in his ear.
She reached Riven in seconds, her heart thundering anew. She pressed her ear to his chest.
Thump.
She gasped. Alive.
His breathing was shallow, but there. His arm was clearly broken, bent wrong at the elbow. His leg—maybe fractured. His chest moved slow, and blood bubbled at the corner of his lip.
But he was alive.
Tears gathered in her eyes.
They were all still breathing.
She looked back at Wade, who hadn't stirred. His body twitched lightly—like something inside him was still moving even while he slept.
Lira dragged herself back beside him. "You're one of them," she whispered. "You're really… a Hero?"
It didn't make sense. Heroes were summoned. Blessed by kings. Announced by pillars of light and fanfare. Not born in small cottages on the edge of the woods. Not raised by farmers. Not little brothers who never had magic.
But Wade had always been strange, hadn't he?
Always so kind. Always thoughtful. Always watching people more than he spoke. And he'd jumped in front of that monster without hesitation.
She'd always seen him as her baby brother. Now, kneeling beside his small body, she realized—he wasn't a child anymore.
He was something else now.
And she didn't know whether to be afraid or relieved.
The heat was beginning to fade.
Charred wood crackled softly, but the blaze that had once devoured the forest now only smoldered in wet patches of scorched moss. Ash drifted down in uneven flakes, settling in Lira's hair, on Wade's still form, and across Riven's unmoving boots. The wind stirred it all into low spirals—restless, like something still unfinished.
Lira sat between them, her knees drawn up, one hand resting gently on Wade's chest, the other clutching the edge of her cloak like a lifeline.
Then a groan broke the stillness.
She snapped her head toward Riven.
His eyes squinted against the light, his brow furrowing with pain as he shifted his weight against the tree. He sucked in air through his teeth and immediately winced.
"Don't move," Lira said, rising to her feet and rushing to his side. "You're hurt. I think your arm's broken."
He blinked blearily. "Lira… what happened?" He coughed, his voice raw. "Did we… kill it?"
She didn't answer right away.
Instead, she lowered herself beside him and gently took his hand. It was scraped and bloodied, but warm.
"We didn't," she said finally. Her voice came quieter than she intended. "Wade did."
Riven's brows shot up, despite the swelling already forming along his temple. "Wade?" He looked past her, toward the still form of his younger brother lying in the grass. "What… what do you mean Wade did?"
She nodded toward the space above Wade's body, where the final glow of the system message hovered faintly, barely visible in the dimming light.
Riven stared.
His mouth opened, closed again. Then, in a hoarse whisper: "A system?"
She nodded once. "Hero Class."
There was a long silence.
The siblings simply sat in the charred ruin of their world, watching over the sleeping boy whose power had destroyed a monster they never could've hoped to defeat.